For first time, championship right in front of Miami’s James

He’s been in nearly every imaginable situation over his nine seasons marked by three MVP awards, three trips to the NBA Finals with two teams and one decision that changed everything.

And now this: He’s one win from a title for the first time in his career.

“I have a job to do,” James said Wednesday. “And my job is not done.”

The job may get done tonight, when the Miami Heat — up 3-1 in this title series — host the Oklahoma City Thunder in Game 5 of the Finals. Even after leaving Game 4 late with a cramp, James is on the cusp of finally becoming a champ. He was swept in his first Finals trip by the Spurs in 2007, then he and the Heat fell in the 2011 title series to Dallas in six games.

After countless ups and downs, the 804th game of his career may be the one that ends his title quest.

“I’ve experienced some things in my long but short career, and I’m able to make it better of myself throughout these playoffs and throughout this whole year, and that’s on and off the court,” said James, who got treatment again Wednesday and said soreness that followed the cramps in his left leg was easing. “I’m just happy that I’m able to be in this position today and be back in this stage where I can do the things that I can do to make this team proud, make this organization proud, and we’ll see what happens.”

James joined the Heat in 2010 after Miami convinced him that he would have enough help to win a championship — more specifically, that he wouldn’t have to carry the load by himself, like he did so many times in Cleveland over his first seven seasons. The Heat were keeping Dwyane Wade, adding Chris Bosh and filling out the roster with a mix that would be best described as unconventional.

If that axiom — more options are better — actually needed to be proven, it was done in Game 4. James could not finish the game, though he returned after the first wave of cramps hit and delivered a key 3-pointer. With James watching the final minute, Wade and Mario Chalmers helped close out the Thunder as Miami win 104-98 to move one win away from the franchise’s second title.

“This team, I think we understand that the moment is the biggest thing,” Wade said. “We’re excited about the possibility of playing better, doing things better defensively, but also offensively. We don’t feel like we’ve played our best game yet, and we feel that’s still to come.”

No team in Finals history has successfully rallied from a 3-1 series deficit, or even forced as much as a Game 7 when presented with that scenario. But Oklahoma City’s losses in this series — in each of the last three games — have come by four, six and six points, respectively.

Russell Westbrook scored 43 points for the Thunder in Game 4 — and they were for naught. It was the second time in these playoffs that someone had scored at least that many against the Heat (Boston’s Rajon Rondo had 44 in a loss).

“It doesn’t matter,” Westbrook said. “There’s probably a lot of different guys that put up so many points or so many amount of rebounds, and nobody remembers it.”

What started on Christmas Day in Dallas, watching the Mavericks hoist the banner that will forever commemorate their championship celebration on Miami’s home floor last year, could end as the perfect turnaround story for the Heat.

“You’ve got to absolutely immerse yourself into the process and the focus,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “It’s Game 5. We want to treat it as a Game 7.”